Lesson 3 - Leading Change

Activity 3

Develop and articulate ideas for describing leading change in an organization of your choice.

(post by Leo)

Due to technological evolution in the world shows an exponential growth, leaders perceive the changes of today as more complex compared to before (LeadershipWatch,2011). It is true that the charges adopted in my organization always relate to technology issue. In order to improve the effectiveness of our work, provide a comfortable workplace for our colleagues to work should help a lot. It is suggested to add the coffee corner in the office. The role of coffee corner is a bit different from the break room. It provides not only the relaxing area to have coffee, but also computer and online access for them to easily have discussion. So they can choose to use this corner to have causal meeting. The ideas of this change aims to help colleagues to be relaxed due to heavy workload and provide more place for them to have gathering.

Reference:

Leading Change: What does Change mean to You?  IN LeadershipWatch. Retrieved March 4, 2011, from http://leadershipwatch-aadboot.com/2011/03/04/leading-change-what-does-change-mean-to-you/

(posted by Steffani)

Same as Leo, I believe the technological evolution drives the organization change. Kotter stated the forces that drove the organizations to change nowadays were economic and social forces including technological change, international economic integration, domestic market maturation within the more developed countries, and the collapse of worldwide communism. The competition among the organizations and companies became more and more fierce which forces the organization to streamline their structures and also improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the production. Technologies were used to increase the efficiency of the production. Technological advancement helps the organizations to have a faster and better communication with their customers, faster and better transportation and connect the people globally. (Kotter,1995)
Though I work in the school, I also feel the eternal forces that drive the school to change. To help the students to face the fast-changing technological world, school devoted lots of resources in IT learning and creating IT environment in school. Lap-tops, computers, tablets were highly accessible in the school. The self-study area was partitioned and equipped with computers. Teachers are required to use the IT facilities during the lessons to facilitate the IT teaching and learning in school. The school was praised by the parents for the advance IT facilities in school. This shows that the parents also appreciate the IT teaching and learning. With certain IT knowledge, it is hoped that the students can have higher competitiveness in the job market.

Kotter, John P. Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School P, 3-31. Retrieved on 16/2/2013 from http://www.shkaminski.com/Classes/Readings/Kotter.htm

(posted by Marisa)

Apart from Leo and Steffanis' opinions about technologies evolution, the knowledge and culture building  will be a moral contribution of a organization.As Fullan states, “if you don’t treat others well and fairly, you will be a leader without followers” (p. 13). knowledge is created as people share across their organization. Fullan suggests a link between knowledge and an internal commitment that leads to meeting the goal.  In result, building a platform or face-to-face situation for workers to share is more inevitable than only completing the work on themselves.  For example, my previous intern work place is a media group which is a professional place for people to   accumulate information and own opinions for a program or an interview.The team work is so essential in the modern organization.
 So,I think the online peer evaluation and sharing system can be the development for IT field.Setting up a private group virtual society for workers for them to promote the relationship 
and strength the spirit. It is the basic part for organization to form its culture and environment.  


(Posted by Cyrus)
As stated by Hansen (2002), task teams in focal business units with short path lengths in a knowledge network (i.e., few intermediaries are needed to connect with other units) are likely to obtain more knowledge from other business units and perform better than those with long path lengths because of search benefits accruing to business units with short path lengths. And I found this short path lengths should be practical for my organization's leading change. Since we don't have particular emphasis on information sharing, we encounter information distortion and difficulties in information collection from different departments whenever a huge amount of information needs to be shared. As information sharing is only part of the working processes, if it is distorted, it will adversely affect the quality and delay the time of further production. Even other parts of the working processes is well valued and equipped, ineffective or inefficient information sharing may ruin the result. For a timely and quality marketing execution, a reform is needed for information sharing system in my organization.
Currently, local information is shared through a local server called HK-shared; and international information is shared through a global server called X-serve International File Transfer. Hardware is well developed, however, the software is an unstructured mess. Inside both servers, the folders and files are arranged randomly with lots of similar subjects or undefined names like 'New folder'. And both of them easily arrive its maximum capacity, with accumulated unused information uncleared. I strongly recommend a regular back-up and clear-up of both servers and both should be establish in a systematical way with a clear and consistent list of  categories, dates and versions.

Reference:

Hansen, M.T. (2002). Knowledge networks: explaining effective knowledge sharing in multiunit companies. Organization Science, 13(3), 232-248.